The Cinema Corner – July 7th

Movie of the week – It Comes at Night

The past few weeks have been a wasteland for quality new releases, but that all changes this week, with some absolute gems on offer. It Comes at Night is the sophomore effort of director Trey Edward Shults, who gave us one of last year’s highlights in his domestic drama Krisha. This one sees him venture closer to horror territory with a tense and stimulating tale of a family that reluctantly accepts strangers into their home following a viral outbreak that has wiped out most of the population. Confirms Shults as one of the most exciting filmmakers working today.

War for the Planet of the Apes

War for the Planet of the Apes is the third movie in the rebooted Apes franchise, and it’s quite something. With no more than three scenes featuring spoken dialogue, the movie plays like some lost biblical epic of the silent era, positing chief ape Caesar as a Moses figure leading his people to safety. Director Matt Reeves give us the sort of visual storytelling that’s almost entirely absent from mainstream Hollywood in our age, and the CG effects are game-changing, incorporated flawlessly with the motion capture performances, most notably that of Andy Serkis, who I suspect will figure heavily in next year’s Oscars conversation. If you want to catch up with the series, you can catch screenings of the first two installments, Rise and Dawn, at the Lighthouse on Sunday and Monday respectively.

Spider-Man: Homecoming

This week is so good that even the superhero movie opening is worth a watch. Spider-Man: Homecoming is the first standalone movie for Spidey under the official Marvel banner, with young British actor Tom Holland donning the iconic outfit. When he’s Spider-Man, the movie is another bland comic book adaptation, but the film really springs to life in its Peter Parker scenes, when it’s essentially a teen comedy.